Operating systems are computer programs that manage the way software applications utilize the hardware of computer systems. A fundamental component of an operating system is the operating system kernel (also referred to herein as a “kernel”), which provides secure computer system hardware access to software applications executing on the computer system. Since accessing the hardware can be complex, kernels may implement a set of hardware abstractions to provide a clean and uniform interface to the underlying hardware. The abstractions provided by the kernel provide software developers easier access to the hardware when writing software applications.
Operating systems typically segregate virtual memory into kernel space and user space. User space is typically the virtual memory region for running user applications, while the kernel space is typically reserved for running the kernel and extensions to the kernel.